misscalije's review against another edition
4.0
I was going to rate this a five, but towards the end, Janey dropped a cat pun.
pwbalto's review against another edition
5.0
Zingy text that makes a point about the pitfalls of power and wishes and robots without being preachy at all. No, I'm not kidding. When little King Jasper retires to his castle to draw and have a snack with a new friend rather than wishing for more and more spectacular stuff, it feels like a natural progression. There are consequences to his spasm of wish-fulfillment, but they are neither dire nor lasting.
Bonus points for cat puns, show-don't-tell text, and use of the word "sneezy."
The art is pretty exceptional for a book like this. It looks like animation - no outlines - and has a clean, peppy style. The palette is super-appealing, like walking into a candy store. Everything is lime green and starry blue and many many shades of hot pink and purple - except Jasper, who is brown-skinned, and his dog Greg, who is tan.
Nice job, Rodale Kids.
Bonus points for cat puns, show-don't-tell text, and use of the word "sneezy."
The art is pretty exceptional for a book like this. It looks like animation - no outlines - and has a clean, peppy style. The palette is super-appealing, like walking into a candy store. Everything is lime green and starry blue and many many shades of hot pink and purple - except Jasper, who is brown-skinned, and his dog Greg, who is tan.
Nice job, Rodale Kids.
panda_incognito's review against another edition
2.0
This is pure chaos with barely any story and no meaningful message. As the librarian who read this before me stated, "It had so much potential, but it's really a crappy book."
librarianryan's review
4.0
Not all Kings are good at all things. Jasper is not the greatest at running his kingdom. When he gets bored, he wishes for a dragon, when that causes problems he wishes for something else, and on and on. While the wizard cannot convince Jasper that he doesn't need anything else, someone comes along who can. This book was super cute with great illustrations. The life lesson isn’t as big as it could be, but it still works, and overall I enjoyed the story.
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